Disney World (Day 4)

Today, finally, we were able to sleep in a bit.  We had reservations for breakfast at Ohana (a restaurant right at our resort) with Lilo and Stitch, Mickey and Pluto.

None of us have ever seen Lilo and Stitch, but we knew who they were (just not what that creature is).

Mickey (4th time).

Cheers.  You can see Cinderella's castle from the windows, I bet this is a great place from which to watch the fireworks.

Pluto.

Alison went for Pluto's bootie.

After breakfast, we took a bus to Disney's Blizzard Beach.  Normally a day pass to this waterpark is $45-$53, but because the main pool at our resort was under construction they offered us free passes to come here.  We had to sign in at the ticket booth where they gave us towels to use, our passes and a bottle of sunscreen. I'm not sure if we were supposed to give the sunscreen back or what, but we were surprised by that.

The waterpark was pretty awesome. In true Disney fashion, every detail was addressed.  The wave pool is right near the sandy beach. There is a chairlift to the top of the waterslide mountain.  The first slide we went on was the world's longest family raft ride.  All five of us sat in a tube that careened down a long slide from the top of the hill.  It was really fun. We rode the lazy river (also huge), then Ada and I went on a couple of slides while Kate and Lyla played in the sand and Alison napped.

It was a little chilly to be swimming, but it was warmer than the previous few days.

After the waterpark, we returned to our resort where we surprised the girls with tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.  I didn't love the idea of spending another $70 per person to get into the Magic Kingdom, but we had heard good things about the party and, well, when in Rome...

Instead of the monorail, we took the boat from our resort to the park.  If you look very closely in the picture below you can just make out Cinderella's castle.

We were waiting in line to see Tinkerbell near the park entrance.  The girls were studying the special map for the Christmas party planning our evening while we waited.

Tinkerbell.

We had a great view of the fireworks while we waited in line to meet the ducks.  Aside from the fact that cardboard fireworks casings were raining down on us...

The Seven Dwarfs come out for the party.

This trip was all about Lyla.  Meeting all of the characters was simply magical for her.  She loved showing everybody her pigtails and red hair.

With Merida.

Lyla and Merida got along well.  During the parade the following day, Merida spotted Lyla from her float and gave her a special wave and pointed to her hair.

Another redhead. Ariel.

Santa Goofy.  Those whiskers are rubber.  Alison and I both checked.

The ducks.  Donald (my favorite), Daisy and Scrooge.

Christmas Minnie.

Tomorrow we return yet again to the Magic Kingdom.

Hollywood Studios (Day 3)

We ate breakfast at our hotel, and spent the next day at Hollywood Studios.

Lyla loved the Disney Jr. Show.  While we waited for the show to start, I had to snap a photo of her shirt for the day.

The first two days were pretty chilly (highs were in the mid-60's), but by today it started to warm up.

Daisy in lingerie.

Green Army Man.

Lightning McQueen and Mater.

Sofia. Apparently, Ada doesn't like Sofia (so she says...).

Jake.

I had heard a little bit about the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights (they have a pretty interesting backstory from when they were displayed in Arkansas), but didn't know too much about what to expect.  Hollywood Studios has decorated the Streets of America area of the park with more than 5 million lights.  Below is a picture of one of the buildings during the day, then a view at night.  We ate our Olaf cupcakes while we watched the spectacle of lights.

I took two photos at the exact same spot. One during the day and one during the light show.

Here is a video clip of the lights in action:

In front of Mickey's hat.

The next two pictures are from the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith.  It's a fun roller coaster in the dark with a couple of inversions.  I love Alison and Ada's faces.

It took a lot of work, but I was finally able to convince Ada to go on the Tower of Terror ride with me (she's been a number of times, but finds it quite scary).  This is possible the one ride that is better here at Disney World than it is at Disneyland. Ada is unfortunately hidden by the guys arms in front of her, but you can see her a little better in the video.

Here is a video from the ride.

The last thing that we did at Hollywood Studio (besides waiting forever for a bus) was Fantasmic!

And finally, a short video of the fireworks over Elsa's Ice Castle from our view on the beach across the lake:

Magic Kingdom (Day 2)

We next visited the Magic Kingdom.  We didn't expect the crowds to be too bad (even though it was a Friday), because the park closed at 7:00 PM that evening for a separately ticketed Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party event.

In no particular order, here are some of the highlights from that day:

We started out the morning on the Jingle Cruise. Kate's favorites are the elephants.

Kate's love of elephants extends to Dumbo as well.

In the new Fantasyland area is a statue of Gaston. The only think that it's missing is that it is not covered with hair.

Every night Cinderella's castle was transformed into Elsa's Ice Castle.  It looked pretty amazing.

In front of Beast's Castle.  Just before enjoying some LeFou's Brew (similar to a frozen butterbeer, but with an applebeer like concoction).  Unfortunately, we were unable to try some of the delicious gray stuff.

Hello Lumiere.

Whenever I am focused intently on something, I nearly bite my tongue off as I chew on it. As a side note, the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disneyland is way better than the ride at Disney World.  The guns at Disney World can't be removed from the cart, so the range of motion is fairly limited.  Also, because the guns are stuck to the cart it was difficult to aim.  But maybe I'm just bitter because I scored a whopping 32,000 points while Ada score more than 400,000!

Also in the new Fantasyland. In front of Ariel's palace.  The same Little Mermaid ride that is at California Adventureland (and that you can nearly always walk onto) is here at Disney World, but the wait was rarely less than 30-40 minutes.  Crazy.

Another picture from another angle in front of Belle's castle.

Cinderella's Castle.

Look at the flying rodent that showed up.

We waited around 40 minutes to see Anna and Elsa.  That's about as good as it ever is.  When we were at the Magic Kingdom on Monday the waits for Anna and Elsa were over 2 hours at times.

Both Anna and Elsa just loved Lyla's shirt with Olaf on it.  I think that he had had a bad day.

With that lady from Tangled.  We visited all these princesses just before the park was about to close for Mickey's Christmas Party.  It was kind of in the in-between time and the lines were quite manageable.

Cinderella.

Now for some pictures from the rides.  One of my favorite purchases when we visit a Disney park is to buy the photopass that let's you have all of the pictures that the Disney photographers take.  When we returned from Disney World I downloaded just under 2 GB of pictures and videos of our family at the park.  At Disney World the photopass also allows you to keep all of the pictures from the rides, which was kind of fun.

Space Mountain. Those are some comfy seats, but I especially like the bearded fellow who joined me and Ada in our picture.

Space Mountain.

Space Mountain.

Splash Mountain.

Splash Mountain. Look at Alison cowering under Ada's jacket.

Jesse and Woody.

Lastly, a video from a new ride - the Seven Dwarf's Mine Train.  Look for me, Ada and Kate.

After we left the park (i.e. were kicked out for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party), we took the monorail back to our hotel, ate some dinner and then watched the fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom from the beach across the water.  It was chilly, but quite lovely.